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What we know so far about the victims of Alberta's serial killer

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It may have been decades since four Alberta women were killed by a serial killer, but their stories still resonate and deserve to be told. RCMP busted that serial killer on Friday Gary Allen Surrey he preyed on Alberta women in the 1970s and they believe his victims may have been many.

The four victims were Eva Dvorak, 14, Patricia McQueen, 14, Melissa Rehorek, 20, and Barbara McLean, 19.

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Although the stories of these victims were both similar and different, they were all young women with dreams for the future. They were daughters, sisters, relatives and friends of many who mourned them. Here's a look at what we know about these women so far.


Eva Dvorak and Patricia McQueen, 14; Found in February 1976

Eva Dvorak and Patsy McQueen were only 14 when they were murdered. They were friends and Grade 9 students at Jan Bazalgette High School in Calgary. Their bodies were found under the Happy Valley overpass, about a mile outside of town.

RCMP say the girls were last seen hitchhiking on SE 12th Street and 9th Avenue. They had many friends and the death of the girls shocked the city, the police did not know the cause of their death for a long time.

“Not a day goes by that I don't think about it,” Eva's sister Martha Dvorak told the Herald 13 years after her death. “We really want to know what happened. It's still hard to tell my mother about it.”

Calgary Herald; February 16, 1976.

Melissa Ann Rehorek, 20; Found on September 16, 1976

The fully clothed body of 20-year-old Melissa Ann Rehorek was found on September 16, 1976, in a ditch along a gravel road about 20 kilometers west of Calgary near the Trans-Canada Highway. He was strangled.

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She was last seen leaving the Calgary YWCA where she lives. He planned to hitchhike out of town on his two-day vacation from working as a waiter at a local hotel.

In 2011, his brother Jim Rehorek told the Calgary Herald: “I gave up a long time ago that they were ever going to find someone… After a while you start thinking, 'What are the chances?' you start to think. “

Calgary Herald;  September 17, 1976.
Calgary Herald; September 17, 1976.

Barbara Jean McLean, 19; Found on February 27, 1977

“I loved her and I wish she was here so I could tell her.” These words were spoken by Jim McLean in 1977 while waiting for a plane at the Calgary airport. He and other relatives were taking the body of his sister, Barbara Jean McLean, to his hometown of Inverness, Nova Scotia, for burial.

Jim told the Herald: 'She was a lovely little girl, full of life and smart and happy to be away from home for the first time. “It's absolutely unbelievable to us.”

On the night of February 26, 1977, 19-year-old McLean decided to hitchhike home after an argument with her boyfriend. The next morning, a man walking his dog found Barbara's fully clothed, strangled body near a gravel road near 80th Avenue and NE 6th Street in Calgary. Police traced her movements to a tavern at the Highlander Hotel the night before, where she and her boyfriend had an argument after closing time.

The daughter of a retired doctor, McLean moved to Calgary, where she worked at the Royal Bank.

Calgary police Sgt. Ray Forsyth told the Herald at the time that there were many similarities between the deaths of McLeed and Rehorek. Both were strangled and beaten.

Calgary Herald;  February 28, 1977
Calgary Herald; February 28, 1977
Calgary Herald;  February 6, 1982.
Calgary Herald; February 6, 1982.
Calgary Herald;  April 1, 1981.
Calgary Herald; April 1, 1981.

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